Special TESTING, 1, 2, 3...

What is the meaning of PSD

in g2/Hz units?
By Wayne Tustin

Random vibration test standards and specifications usually provide spectra showing desired
vibration intensity as Power Spectral Density (PSD) or as Acceleration Spectral Density (ASD) in
rather strange units of g2/Hz vs. frequency in hertz or Hz.The following paragraphs are intended to
promote understanding of these odd PSD/ASD units and why they are necessary and useful.

Editor’s note: Wayne Tustin is one the electronics industry’s foremost experts on mechanical testing. It this first of a series, Wayne uses a
“Tom, Dick, and Harry” fable to highlight the importance of context in conducting vibration testing.

Tom’s assignment
Tom is asked to physically measure the vibration existing at some
physically realizable location. Tom gathers vibration-measuring
instruments similar to those in Figure 1. Temporarily, however,
Tom bypasses the filter.
Before taking measurements, Tom calibrates his measurement
system. He temporarily attaches his accelerometer to the table
of a small electrodynamic calibration shaker that develops 1 g
Root Mean Square (RMS); that is, 1.414 g peak, at the arbitrarily
chosen sine test frequency of 1000 Hz. Tom adjusts his “set gain”
control so that his true RMS readout displays 1 Vrms.
What is the sensitivity of his measurement system? That is, what
is Tom’s transfer sensitivity from acceleration in g to volts? 1:1,
right? Whenever Tom sees 1 V on the meter, he knows that his
accelerometer is experiencing 1 g. Whenever Tom sees 2 V on
the meter, he knows that his accelerometer is experiencing 2 g
and so on.
the frequency of his calibration shaker (maintaining 1-g RMS
= 1.414 g peak) over a wide range of frequencies. Tom plots
his voltmeter reading (which surprisingly remains constant at
1 Vrms) vs. frequency. Figure 2 shows the calibration results.
In the real world, of course, the response will never be this flat.
The graph was drawn with a ruler.
Something motivates Tom to introduce the bandpass filter shown
in Figure 1. He unbypasses the filter. He adjusts the filter center
frequency to 1000 Hz and the bandwidth to 160 Hz. Now Tom
repeats the previous sweep and graph.
Note the dramatic change in sensitivity vs. frequency depicted
in Figure 3. Tom’s sensitivity is still 1 V/g but only from 920 Hz
to 1080 Hz. Real world responses are never this rectangular. The
transitions at the “cutoff” frequencies are never vertical. These,
too, were drawn with a ruler. The only reason for including Fig-
ure 3 is the remote possibility that some readers might not be
familiar with bandpass filters.

But Tom has only learned the sensitivity at 1000 Hz. He needs Finally, Tom is prepared to make that measurement. Tom removes
to determine the sensitivity at other frequencies. Tom sweeps his accelerometer from the calibration shaker and attaches it at the

bypass

variable
bandpass TRMS
crystal accelerometer filter electronic
accelerometer amplifier voltmeter
set set
center bandwidth
set
frequency “B”
gain
vibration
input
motion

Figure 1

Reprinted from VMEbus Systems / December 2005 Copyright 2005

sensitivity
respectively. Then they might have agreed that everyone must use
the same bandwidth.

Historically, the reports of some early random vibration inves-

tigators failed to log the bandwidths the investigators had used.
Their data was essentially useless.
frequency Manipulate data
Figure 2 Table 1 indicates that had Tom, Dick, and Harry each squared his
RMS readings and divided by the bandwidth each used; then each
would have reported 0.1 g2/Hz.

Various laboratories, firms, and agencies similarly communicate

regarding random vibration intensity. The effect of bandwidth
sensitivity

is canceled out (normalized). Nearly everyone uses the self-

explanatory term g2/Hz. Very few workers use a metric version
of PSD/ASD: m2/s3.

BW (Hz) volts (RMS) g (RMS) g2 g2/Hz

160 4 4 16 0.1
920 1080 frequency, Hz 40 2 2 4 0.1
Figure 3 10 1 1 1 0.1
Table 1
location of interest. Now his voltmeter indicates 4 Vrms. From
the 4 Vrms meter reading, Tom infers that his accelerometer was
sensing 4 g RMS. The final column of Table 1, with the units g2/Hz, is commonly
called PSD. A few workers call it Acceleration Spectral Density
Dick’s assignment (ASD) or Autocorrelation Spectral Density. All mean essentially
Dick is similarly motivated. He independently repeats each of the same thing.
Tom’s steps, with one exception: He selects a 40 Hz bandwidth.
At this point some key information should be noted that neither Power? Examine the spectrum
Tom nor Dick would have without taking further measurements: How can we use the term power in this context? Note that volt-
The vibration that interests them is (1) random and it is (2) white age e2 represents acceleration in gravitational multiples and
in the vicinity of 1000 Hz. Because of (1) and (2), their voltmeter e2 always represents power. Then e2/Hz is the vibration power per
readouts will be proportional to the square root of bandwidth. unit bandwidth.
Dick’s bandwidth is one-fourth of Tom’s, so his voltmeter read-
ing will be one-half of Tom’s. That is, Dick’s voltmeter indicates But wait, all that Tom, Dick, and Harry have learned is the PSD/
2 Vrms. From the 2 Vrms reading of his meter, Dick infers that ASD around 500 Hz. What is occurring at other frequencies?
his accelerometer is sensing 2-g RMS. To find out, each varies his filter’s center frequency from, say,
0 to 5000 Hz.

For example, suppose that each finds that PSD/ASD is constant

“All erred in failing to state the at 0.1 g2/Hz from 20 to 2000 Hz but is zero outside that band.
Rectangular spectra make it easy to calculate the under-spectrum
area. Area = 0.1 g2/Hz _ 1980 Hz = 198 g2. Taking the square root,
frequency range over which each arrives at 14 g RMS.

each had measured.” Spectrum of shaker random vibration

Where is this location of interest? It could not have been on
any vehicle or machine, where spectra are always very jagged.
This spectrum could only be found on a shaker that had been
Harry’s assignment adjusted to deliver a flat, white spectrum in accordance with an
Tom and Dick compare readings and are puzzled at the differ- early circa 1955 random vibration test specification, as shown in
ence. They ask Harry for assistance. Harry independently repeats Figure 4.
each of Tom’s and Dick’s steps with one exception: For some rea-
son, Harry selects a 10 Hz bandwidth filter, one-fourth of Dick’s.
He gets 1 V (one-half of Dick’s) and reports 1-g RMS to Tom and 0.1 g2/Hz
Dick. Now all three are puzzled – three values. PSD
Who was correct?
Was Tom’s reading correct? Was Dick’s? Was Harry’s? In a sense, 20 Frequency, Hz 2000
all were correct but all erred in failing to state the frequency range
over which each had measured: 920-1080, 980-1020, 995-1005 Hz, Figure 4

Copyright 2005 Reprinted from VMEbus Systems / December 2005

Special
Shaker force
The number we just calculated, 14 g RMS, is useful. It tells us
how hard our shaker is working. Just as with sinusoidal vibra-
tion testing, we calculate F = ma. Here a is 14. We add up all
the masses (weights) involved, including test articles, fixture and
shaker armature, and multiply that total by 14. That provides the
RMS force the shaker must deliver.
Such a flat spectrum is rarely if ever encountered today. Typical
test and screening spectra contain PSD/ASD slopes and steps. An
extra feature of digital spectrum control is the automatic calcula-
tion of root area. At one time, test engineers did those calcula-
tions with hand calculators.
Please understand that the foregoing is fiction. It could never
have happened. The concept of analysis in terms of volts2/Hz was
already well established in telephony long before say 1950, when
engineers began to measure random vibrations. A far less popular
normalizing alternative is volts/root Hz. Ω
Wayne Tustin is president and founder of Equipment Reliability
Institute, a specialized Santa Barbara, Calif., engineering
school that focuses on the reliability of hardware for space,
air, sea, and land vehicles and commercial equipment. Wayne’s
courses explore the basics of vibration and shock testing,
measurement, analysis, and calibration.
Reprinted from VMEbus Systems / December 2005
TESTING, 1, 2, 3...
PSD/ASD in m2/s3
The world of science and engineering is an interna-
tional community. Suppose that our friends use Systeme
Internationale units for acceleration intensity: m/s2 rather
than g multiples. For ASD or PSD they would use m2/s3
plotted vertically. To convert to PSD or ASD in units of g2/Hz
they would divide the number of m2/s3 by 96.
For additional information, contact Wayne at:
Equipment Reliability Institute
1520 Santa Rosa Avenue
Santa Barbara, CA 93109
Tel: 805-564-1260
Fax: 805-966-7875
E-mail: tustin@equipment-reliability.com
Website: www.equipment-reliability.com
Copyright 2005